BLINDNESS AS THE THRESHOLD BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH IN SENECA'S OEDIPVS AND PHOENISSAE

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ricardo Duarte
Keyword(s):  
Thought Processes ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Dead

Abstract This article looks at the complexity of the thought processes that lead Seneca's Oedipus to choose the mors longa of blindness as punishment for his crime (in his blindness, he is to live in a kind of ostracism, separately from both the living and the dead). It offers an analysis of the consolation of this existence on the threshold between life and death, notably with reference to the end of the Oedipus, but also of the sorrow of this liminal existence. The latter is described in Seneca's Phoenissae, which suggests an escape, by death stricto sensu, from the threshold represented by blindness, by which Oedipus now feels trapped. By examining these three topics, the article shows how the threshold between life and death which Oedipus chooses at the end of Seneca's Oedipus and experiences in the Phoenissae mirrors the ambivalence and the errors of his life before he blinded himself. Ultimately, it also illustrates Oedipus’ continuing failure to achieve self-knowledge.

Horror and Death: Rethinking Coco's Border Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 41-49
Author(s):  
Orquidea Morales
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Walt Disney Company ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Walt Disney ◽  
Day Of The Dead ◽  
Animated Film ◽  
Border Politics ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The U.S

In 2013, the Walt Disney Company submitted an application to trademark “Día de los muertos” (Day of the Dead) as they prepared to launch a holiday themed movie. Almost immediately after this became public Disney faced such strong criticism and backlash they withdrew their petition. By October of 2017 Disney/Pixar released the animated film Coco. Audiences in Mexico and the U.S. praised it's accurate and authentic representation of the celebration of Day of the Dead. In this essay, I argue that despite its generic framing, Coco mobilizes many elements of horror in its account of Miguel's trespassing into the forbidden space of the dead and his transformation into a liminal figure, both dead and alive. Specifically, with its horror so deftly deployed through tropes and images of borders, whether between life and death or the United States and Mexico, Coco falls within a new genre, the border horror film.

Reveries of the Solitary Walker

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Keyword(s):  
Thought Processes ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Self Knowledge

‘These hours of solitude and meditation are the only time of the day when I am completely myself.’ Reveries of the Solitary Walker is Rousseau's last great work, the product of his final years of exile from the society that condemned his political and religious views. Returning to Paris the philosopher determines to keep a faithful record of the thoughts and ideas that come to him on his perambulations. Part reminiscence, part reflection, enlivened by anecdote and encounters, the Reveries form a kind of sequel to his Confessions, but they are more introspective and less defensive: Rousseau finds happiness in solitude, walks in nature, botanizing, and meditation. Writing an account of his walks becomes a means of achieving self-knowledge and safeguarding for himself the pleasure that others, he is convinced, seek to deny him. The Reveries, shaped by the unmediated nature of Rousseau's thought processes, give powerfully lyrical expression to a painfully tortured soul in search of peace. This new translation is accompanied by an introduction and notes that explore the nature of the work and its historical, literary, and intellectual contexts.

scholarly journals The disorderly body: considerations of The Book of Numbers, 19 and ritual impurity after contact with a corpse

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Sandra Junker
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Dead Body ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Living Body ◽  
The People ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Living Creature

This article deals with the idea of ritual bodily impurity after coming into contact with a corpse in the Hebrew Bible. The evanescence and impermanence of the human body testifies to the mortality of the human being. In that way, the human body symbolizes both life and death at the same time; both conditions are perceivable in it. In Judaism, the dead body is considered as ritually impure. Although, in this context it might be better to substitute the term ‘ritually damaged’ for ‘ritually impure’: ritual impurity does not refer to hygienic or moral impurity, but rather to an incapability of exercising—and living—religion. Ritual purity is considered as a prerequisite for the execution of ritual acts and obligations. The dead body depends on a sphere which causes the greatest uncertainty because it is not accessible for the living. According to Mary Douglas’s concepts, the dead body is considered ritually impure because it does not answer to the imagined order anymore, or rather because it cannot take part in this order anymore. This is impurity imagined as a kind of contagious illness, which is carried by the body. This article deals with the ritual of the red heifer in Numbers 19. Here we find the description of the preparation of a fluid that is to help clear the ritual impurity out of a living body after it has come into contact with a corpse. For the preparation of this fluid a living creature – a faultless red heifer – must be killed. According to the description, the people who are involved in the preparation of the fluid will be ritually impure until the end of the day. The ritual impurity acquired after coming into contact with a corpse continues as long as the ritual of the Red Heifer remains unexecuted, but at least for seven days. 

scholarly journals Impossible Emotions: The Ethics of Mourning and Melancholia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
Tirna Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Impossible Task ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Mourning And Melancholia ◽  
Discursive Traditions

This paper looks at mourning and melancholia, and their ethical implications through the work of Sigmund Freud and mostly Jacques Derrida. The attempt here is to read through Derrida’s auto thanatological oeuvre through questions of fidelity, interminability, impossibility and ethics. In our perpetual struggle as scholars dealing with questions of meaning, existence, loss, life and death this paper tries to navigate the discursive traditions of looking at mourning and melancholia and what their radical potential is or can be where the mourning; melancholic; haunted; living subjects bear an impossible task unto the dead.

The Day of the Dead: Celebrating the Continuity of Life and Death

Liturgy ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
RaúL Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Life And Death ◽  
Day Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead

Mortuary Graffiti in the Roman East

2018 ◽  
pp. 80-140
Author(s):  
Karen B. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Life ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Common Practices ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Roman East

This chapter examines how graffiti was used by ancient Jews to communicate with and about the dead. Focusing on graffiti discovered in cemeteries and burial caves throughout Palestine during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, it describes recurrences of graffiti in Jewish mortuary contexts and suggests that acts of carving them were systematic and deliberate exercises, undertaken by Jews inside cemeteries and burial caves throughout the ancient Levant. The chapter first considers the graffiti inside the mortuary landscape of the ancient city of Beit Shearim, which reveal new readings of the cultural matrix of burial populations at the site as well as insights into Jewish life (and death) in the late ancient Roman East. The mortuary graffiti found at Beit Shearim also offer important information about the relationships between regional Jews and contemporaneous rabbis, who may or may not have followed common practices relating to death and commemoration.

The laughter within the Dialogues of the dead

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Rafael Guimarães Tavares da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Self Knowledge ◽  
The Dead

The Dialogues of the Dead are among the most popular and controversial works of the corpus lucianeum. This article’s aim is to explicit and analyze the different aspects of laughter in these dialogues (besides their philosophical implications), in order to provide a new comprehension of problems and difficulties often associated with this work. We may also mention and deal with some of the main themes displayed throughout the dialogues: self-knowledge, mortality, greed and vanity, for example. Besides, we try to delineate a different way of understanding Lucian’s attitude towards philosophical laughter –mainly as Plato and the Cynics define it. Abstract Os Diálogos dos Mortos estão entre os mais populares e controversos trabalhos do corpus lucianeum. O objetivo deste artigo é explicitar e analisar os diferentes aspectos do riso nesses diálogos (além de suas implicações filosóficas), a fim de oferecer uma nova compreensão de problemas e dificuldades frequentemente associados à obra. Nós mencionaremos e trabalharemos também com alguns dos principais temas trazidos pelos diálogos: autoconhecimento, mortalidade, ganância e vaidade, por exemplo. Além disso, tentaremos delinear uma maneira diversa de entender a atitude de Luciano no que diz respeito ao riso filosófico –sobretudo a partir da maneira como o definem Platão e os cínicos.

scholarly journals Dead Among the Living: Burning Bodies in Inner City Wellington

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Zoe Jaye Moller
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Business District ◽  
A Site

<p>The architecture of cremation has struggled to embrace an identity; it has remained ambiguous in its architectural typology and religious association since it was first introduced into western society. Additionally, the absence of a ritual place for death in urban life is one manifestation of the contemporary idea that death does not belong in the modern living city. Death is seen as having no place in a society obsessed with youth and vigour; it has become an architectural taboo. The increased reluctance to physically address death as the inevitable consequence to life has resulted in death associated architecture eroding to the point where it has become absent in our everyday lives.   With the expansion of Wellington during the 1800’s, cemeteries formerly on the outskirts (Mount and Bolton Streets) became engulfed by the sprawling city. Overflowing with corpses by the 1900’s, these sites now remain dormant, eliminating any opportunity for the public to ‘see’ death daily. Situating a crematorium within a Wellington urban context will not only address this issue, but also successfully meet the demand for more burial spaces, as Makara Cemetery is nearing capacity, and Karori Cemetery is already full. A site located in the ‘dead centre’ of Wellington’s central business district becomes the testing ground for a new urban crematorium – one that aims to reduce the anxiety around death by inclusion of it within people’s everyday lives. It aims to provide mourners with a more meaningful experience, and the general public a cosmopolitan necropolis. The presence of an urban crematorium and columbarium provides continual opportunities for people to reflect on their own mortality, honour and remember the dead, and be reminded to live while they can.   A methodological approach of testing architectural sequences in relation to pattern language theory will allow for a thematic progression for mourners from sorrow to acceptance through the use of light, shadow, and sectional arrangements. This investigation into the meaningfulness of relationships between people and buildings, life and death, translates into spaces ready to be further invested with meaning by mourners.</p>

scholarly journals The Image of the River in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-93
Author(s):  
Ria Taketomi
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Japanese Buddhism ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Special Meaning

Abstract This essay focuses on the theme of the river in Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills which will be analyzed in relation to the nuclear devastation of WWII. Rivers have a special meaning to the inhabitants of Nagasaki since the rivers were filled with the corpses of people who were exposed to radiation after the atomic bombing. It is also known in Nagasaki that unidentifiable fireballs called onibi float over marsh ground at night in summer. Especially in his first novel, A Pale View of Hills, the river evokes the image of Sanzu No Kawa, a river which, in Japanese Buddhism, the souls of the dead are believed to be crossing on the seventh day of afterlife. The river imagery signifies the boundary between life and death, and it has been used as a metaphor for the transience of time. As such, the river displays an ephemeral texture. In A Pale View of Hills, the protagonist Etsuko reminisces about her days in Nagasaki. In her memories, she becomes friends with Sachiko and her daughter Mariko. One night, Mariko confesses to Etsuko that she sees a ghostly woman coming from the other side of the river. Ishiguro also writes about the rivers in other novels. For example, in Never Let Me Go, he uses the river as a metaphor for Kathy and Tommy’s fate. In The Buried Giant, at the end of the novel, Axl sets Beatrice free and lets the boatman carry her alone to the island, which can be read as Beatrice’s departure from life. My analysis explores Ishiguro’s intentions when using the river and various apparitions in his novels, with a special focus on A Pale View of Hills.

The Living City of the Dead: Representation of Life in the Cemeteries in Two Egyptian Novels

Arabica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-116
Author(s):  
Tania Al Saadi
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Symbolic Function ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

Abstract The City of the Dead is a large area on the periphery of Cairo where people live in house-like tombs. This study focuses on two Egyptian novels Šakāwā l-miṣrī l-faṣīḥ (1981-1985) by Yūsuf al-Qaʿīd and Madad (2014) by Maḥmūd al-Wirwārī, in which living in the cemeteries is portrayed as a paradoxical reality where life and death overlap. Limits between the two are blurred, and this creates a confusing situation where landmarks are lost and moral values are subverted. This situation echoes the characters’ personal dilemmas and the uncertain historical context in which they live. This article sheds light on the representation of life in the cemeteries and the concrete and symbolic function of this space. It also discusses this representation within the portrayal of peripheries and marginal spaces in contemporary Egyptian fiction, and explores the way the two novels—published several decades apart—use this ambivalent space to relate their respective historical realities.

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